Microsoft giveth and Microsoft taketh away. As is usually the case, Microsoft's Path Tuesday – this time July 2021 – designed to patch holes in services is also causing problems. As is now customary, Microsoft's security patches are causing some Windows features to misbehave. This time, printing through smart card authentication is not working on some systems.
Update KB5004237 arrived in the July 2021 Patch Tuesday package. Microsoft says the update says scanning is also affected on those system. Ironically, the patch fixes printing issues related to USB connections.
While it did fix the USB problem (CVE-2021-33764 vulnerability), it is now causing other issues in the form of a new bug. It seems the issue is causing Domain Controller servers to have problems. These act as barriers for handling authentication requests.
Widespread
Smart cards seem to be causing the problem, while regular user and password authentication appears to be working. Microsoft points out the problem may cause some prints to fail:
“After installing updates released July 13, 2021 on domain controllers (DCs) in your environment, printers, scanners, and multifunction devices which are not compliant with section 3.2.1 of RFC 4556 spec, might fail to print when using smart-card (PIV) authentication.”
This issue covers a broad selection of Windows client and server versions:
- Client: Windows 10, version 21H1; Windows 10, version 20H2; Windows 10, version 2004; Windows 10, version 1909; Windows 10, version 1809; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2019; Windows 10 Enterprise LTSC 2016; Windows 10, version 1607; Windows 10 Enterprise 2015 LTSB; Windows 8.1; Windows 7 SP1
- Server: Windows Server, version 20H2; Windows Server, version 2004; Windows Server, version 1909; Windows Server, version 1809; Windows Server 2019; Windows Server 2016; Windows Server 2012 R2; Windows Server 2012; Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1; Windows Server 2008 SP2
Microsoft is now looking into a temporary workaround while working on wider fix.
Tip of the day: Fast startup (a.k.a hiberboot, hybrid boot, hybrid shutdown) is a power setting that adjusts the OS' behavior when it starts up and shuts down. Though it is unlikely fast startup will seriously harm your computer, there are a few reasons you might want to disable it following our tutorial.
